Chinese Recipes | Cooking Tips | Good Eats

The packet said: “Radish (Daikon) Rice Cake”. But I know it as Carrot Cake. And the Chinese words (not that I could read it) looked vaguely familiar.

Here’s a mathematical analysis:

Radish is also known as White Carrot or Chai Tow in Hokkien. Rice cake is known as ‘kway’ in Hokkien.

IF [radish => (white) carrot] AND [rice cake => kway]
THEN radish rice cake => carrot cake => chai tow kway!

God, I hate programming.

The authentic Chai Tow Kway is supposed to be in smaller pieces, and stir fried with radish and an egg. You can get it in the “black” or “white” form. “Black” because it is stir fried with dark soy sauce, and “white” because it is stir fried in light soy sauce. I was told that when you order Chai Tow Kway from a hawker center in Singapore, you must order from a stall whereby the cook is very energetic in his or her stir frying and makes a lot of noise as he or she hits the ladle against the wok, then the Chai Tow Kway will be more tasty!

Of course I cannot stir fry my Chai Tow Kway with the same vigor, or the whole stove and kitchen floor will be in a mess and I will be the one doing the cleaning ultimately. So what I did was to cut the block of Chai Tow Kway into cubes, stir fry them in a tablespoon of oil, or just enough oil to coat my frying pan. Since I am a meat person, I also bought some Char Siew (Roasted Pork) from Ranch 99 deli, and stir fried that together with my Chai Tow Kway. Nearer completion, that is when the Chai Tow Kway looked a bit crusty on their sides, I added soy sauce to taste and mixed well.

The Chai Tow Kway from Ranch 99 tasted quite authentic! I will give it a go again and stir fry it with radish and egg - the good old Singaporean way!